BENTO COELHO DA SILVEIRA - c. 1620-1708 Jesus among Doctors oil on canvas relined, restoration unsigned Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 52,5 x 82 cm Notes: The small canvas representing The Child Jesus among the Doctors, considered to be from the first phase of the painter Bento Coelho da Silveira (c. 1630-1708), is not only of evident artistic interest, due to the quality of the drawing of some of the figures and as a testament to Portuguese proto-baroque painting, but also because it raises new questions in the definition of an ‘art problem’ that has remained undefined in critical circles: Bento Coelho’s apprenticeship with José do Avelar Rebelo (c. 1590-1657). This is a painting with a tenebrist atmosphere, produced most likely in the sixth decade of the 17th century, and whose history is completely unknown. We do not know who commissioned it, or which chapel or oratory it was intended for. We do not know who commissioned it, or which chapel or oratory it was intended for. It is possible that it was a Jesuit space, knowing the preference of the priests of the Society of Jesus for a theme like this, in which the Child Jesus, whom the Virgin and Saint Joseph searched for three days, as they considered him lost, addresses them in these terms:  «Porque me procuráveis? Não sabeis que tenho de estar em casa de meu Pai?». On canvas, Jesus' parents are seen in the background, in a discreet pose, on the left, without interrupting the dispute with the Doctors they are watching. What is certain is that the composition of this canvas shows familiarity with models of Nordic engraving, in this case that of Jerónimo Wierix which represents the same subject as the Gospel of Saint Luke (2, 41-45) and was intended to illustrate the famous book by the Jesuit priest Jerónimo Nadal Evangelicae Historiae Imagines, published in Antwerp in 1593 (and later republished in 1595 and 1607). Despite the formal variations, notably in the throne and the pose of the Child Jesus, the artist's knowledge of the prints in the aforementioned book, which was widely distributed throughout Christianity, both inside and outside Catholic Europe, becomes evident. In the sacristy of the Jesuit College of São João Evangelista, in Funchal, there is a series of canvases purchased in Lisbon, around 1655, with various passages of Marian iconography and the childhood of Jesus, very interesting works, studied by Madeiran art historians Rita Rodrigues and Isabel Santa Clara, who considered them to have come from the workshop of José do Avelar Rebelo, the famous royal painter of King D. João IV. Now it turns out that the painting of The Child among the Doctors from this series is exactly similar in composition to the painting shown here! Except for slight group variations, in the curtain that can be seen above the throne (which in the Madeira painting is red, with vibrant shades) and in the arrangement of the books on the floor, it is clear that whoever painted this painting knew the one in Funchal well. And the knowledge also extends to a large canvas of an earlier date, the altar piece of the Chapel of the Child Jesus in the Jesuit church of São Roque, one of the pieces that made Avelar most famous in the encomiastic literature of the time. Although much looser in execution and chromatically richer, this grand canvas of the church of São Roque (with Italianate touches in the large surrounding scenography) does not fail to offer formal suggestions, in the group of doctors on the left, for the two twin paintings, the one of Funchal and the one on display here. In the vast work of the artist Bento Coelho da Silveira, who was a painter for the royal courts of Kings D. Afonso VI and D. Pedro II, and who deserved the preparation of an essential exhibition with catalogue by the art historian Luís de Moura Sobral (IPPAR, 1998), the problem of the artist's training and initial phase has always been raised. If Bento Coelho, a “painter of almost infinite longevity”, was active with his disciples and followers at the head of a Lisbon workshop where he worked uninterruptedly from around 1665 to 1708, the date of his death, the truth is that in his early phase he still did not paint with the breadth and repetitiveness of recipes that would later characterize him, almost exhausting his creativity in three hundred pieces that have survived to this day. This loose way of painting did not yet exist in the years of apprenticeship, as can be seen in the 1656 copper (signed and dated), the Lamentation over the body of Christ from the old Viscountess of Sacavém collection (p. 192 of the aforementioned catalogue), with extremely delicate modeling of figures, atmospheres and poses. And also in two paintings from the Museum of São Roque (Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi), from a similar date, pieces of firm design, and whose authorship has oscillated significantly between Avelar and Bento, without it being known for sure whether it was possible that both had collaborated, as in Funchal... The piece now presented helps to explain the initial phase of the future royal painter of King D. Pedro II and better clarifies the problem of his artistic training, which took place in the workshop of Avelar Rebelo, an art nursery of plastic recipes, formal solutions and iconographic sources that the future would soon make great use of, to the point of exhaustion, in the following half century. Vítor Serrão Art Historian Prof. Emeritus Professor of FLUL Cabral Moncada Leilões records and thanks Professor Doctor Vítor Serrão for his willingness to identify the Author and for the historical and artistic framing of the work in question.